


The Two Tonys

by lymricks



Category: Captain America (2011), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Halloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-01
Updated: 2011-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-25 14:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lymricks/pseuds/lymricks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain America is a dick, which makes it ok to ruin Pepper's first Halloween off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Two Tonys

Pepper can’t remember the last Halloween she spent at home.

Tony’s mansion hasn’t ever been the kind of place to go trick or treating at. The security system is so advanced that it would kill even the smallest of children, but it’s never stopped a few particularly irritating teenagers from trying to break in. Pepper had dealt with them herself the first two years, now she has security stationed to deal with it.

Tony had suggested getting Clint to dress up as a bird and shoot “the little fuckers” with arrows. She’d acted horrified, but she’d been tempted.

The fact is, Pepper spends most Halloweens trailing Tony around various parties and festivals, negotiating costume changes, reminding him of people’s names, and making notes to avoid a PR scandal. That is all in the past. This is her first Halloween as CEO of Stark Industries and she’s got a bowl of candy and a witch’s hat sitting right next to her door. She’s excited to hand it out; she’s excited to do the _real deal_ for Halloween.

The thing about Pepper is, she’s very good at taking things in stride. She’s especially good at taking Tony in stride. So when her doorbell rings, and Tony Stark is standing on the other side of it, staring at her witch hat like he’s never _seen one_ before, she just gives him a look and says, “You could at least have worn a costume, Tony.”

He waits until her back is turned to flip her off, and thinks she doesn’t see it. She does. Pepper takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and counts to ten. She says, “Tony, why are you here?” and debates about calling his new assistant and giving the poor girl a hand. He’s supposed to be at three parties. One is important Avengers Business, and Natasha will kill him—creatively—if he doesn’t show up.

Tony flops down on her couch and throws an arm over his eyes. Pepper stands in her front hall, staring at him, with a hand on her hip and waits. She knows it’s coming, with Tony, the dramatic declaration is always coming.

While she waits, she drafts press releases and apology notes in her head. There’s a moment where she wonders why on Earth she still knows this much about his schedule, why she still _cares_ , but she dismisses it, files it for later consideration, and pulls out her blackberry. She types out the drafts, emails them to the new girl (Pepper really needs to learn her name, but she’s tall and leggy, and Pepper got a little defensive until she realized that new girl just wasn’t her), and walks over to Tony.

Pepper Potts is the CEO of Stark Industries, and she doesn’t flop onto couches, except apparently, when Tony is around.

“Captain America,” Tony announces once she’s settled against his side, “Is a dick.”

Pepper raises an eyebrow, “Really,” she says.

“Yes really,” Tony says. “He doesn’t get me, Pep.”

Pepper doesn’t actually have a reply ready for that, so she shifts and stays silent, looking curiously at Tony and waiting—just waiting.

“I though we had something good. You know? We’ve been getting along, and ok, I get it, I’m not always easy to get along with—you’ve always said that, but you stick around. Except for that one time with the zebras—”

Pepper presses her finger against Tony’s lips and says, “ _Focus_ , Tony,” because at the rate Tony’s going, she may have to turn off her porch light and miss all the wonderful little kids coming to her door. Tony goes cross-eyed looking at her finger, but she waits until she’s sure he’ll behave before she removes it.

“Right. Sorry. You know how I get. Anyway, we’ve been getting along, and I don’t know! You’ve seen him, right? The way he smiles, his abs, Pepper it’s not even _fair_ , and ok, so maybe I was reading his signals wrong, but I don’t do that usually, do I? I do? Ok, I knew that. But he’s my teammate, I shouldn’t be reading his signals wrong, should I?”

Pepper sighs and stands up, going for the porch light, but Tony reaches out and grabs her wrist, says, “Pepper, I kissed him.”

Pepper closes her eyes, counts to ten, and tries not to kill Iron Man. She tries to banish the lecture about all the rules, all the clauses of all the contracts he’s probably breaking by kissing Captain America. She wants to tell him not to take advantage, that this guy is something so good that Tony can’t possibly go out and ruin him, she knows Tony, he’s a good person, _really_ and he wouldn’t just go and ruin Captain America.

Tony doesn’t let go, even though he has to know holding on is going to be detrimental to his health. “Pep,” he says, and his voice is quiet in the way that it gets when he’s done something horrible, something he can’t fix and he isn’t sure she can either. The first big fight with Rhodey, he’d used that voice. The first time he’d cheated on her, he’d used that voice. She turns, very, very slowly, and carefully arranges her face into something that she hopes isn’t accusing.

“Pepper, I think,” Tony’s voice stumbles; he lets go of her wrist and looks away. “It sounds stupid out loud, but I say stupid stuff to you all the time, and you don’t judge me. Well, you do, but you judge me nicely, don’t you? You don’t like, talk about me with your girlfriends, right? Do you have girlfriends? Do you and Natasha, and I don’t know, Jane and Darcy get together on Friday nights and have a lot of wine? Do you talk about girl things, maybe show each other some new tricks with your—”

“Tony. If you finish that sentence you won’t have to worry about Captain America because I will kill you.”

“I’m in love with him. I think.”

Pepper sits back down.

“God, Pepper, I know it’s horrible, ok? But listen, just listen. He’s good for me, right? You see that. You have to see that. He’s probably too good for me, you know, he’s like _Captain America_ and my dad was probably in love with him. Ew. Scratch that, that’s gross,” Tony wrinkles his nose and presses his face into a pillow.

Pepper remembers to breathe. She can handle this. Tony being overdramatic she can handle, Tony being in love? That’s…that’s a little bit new. “Ok, I understand,” she says, even though she doesn’t, “But how is he a dick?”

“He’s not,” Tony says, “I am. I can’t. I’ll fuck everything up, and not just whatever relationship, but the team. The team’s the only thing I’ve got going for me, Pepper, and maybe Steve, and I can’t ruin that.”

Tony looks out the window, tired and small on her couch. Pepper sighs and rests a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t do this,” she says quietly.

“I know Pepper, that’s what I’m _saying_ ,” he says.

“No, you can’t create these endings for things that haven’t begun yet.” She shifts away from him, settling next to him instead and crosses her legs, rests her hands in her lap. “Think of it this way. You’re creating something--a robot--it’s not great yet, you aren’t sure it's doing what you want it to do, but it has a lot of potential. Would you really just create it to be horrible because you’re afraid it’s going to go wrong? Or would you try to figure it out.”

“I don’t make things that go badly.”

The doorbell rings, so Pepper doesn’t even dignify that with an answer. “You’re worth it, Tony,” she says, and she’s said it before, knows Rhodey has too. “You’re not the best guy in the world, but you know that. And maybe you don’t have to change completely, but you can be someone—I don’t know, someone worth looking up to.”

Tony’s whole face falls; she sees it happen and hesitates, her hand on the doorknob. “Yeah well,” Tony says roughly, his voice more raw than it was a second ago, his eyes dark and closed. She’s said something wrong, but there isn’t a way to go back, now. Besides. Someone needs to tell him these things, and she has yet to see anyone else who isn’t afraid of him care enough to do it.

“It’s not like fucking kids will ever be Tony Stark for Halloween. I’ve got Iron Man going for me and that’s it. I know. You don’t have to tell me, Pepper.”

The doorbell rings again and she pulls it open. The kind on the other side is maybe five or six, his hair flops in his eyes, bunched up under a red and gold helmet that’s pushed up off his face. She smiles. “Are you Iron Man?” she asks, kneeling down and holding the bowl of candy out to him.

He eyes her, takes a handful of chocolate bars, and scoffs. “No,” he says, “I’m Tony Stark. Duh.”

She almost starts crying she laughs so hard. The little boy looks confused, and his mom behind him, looks nervous. “Just a moment, please,” Pepper says, standing up. She looks over her shoulder. “Tony!” she calls, “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

Tony’s head pops up over her shoulder, his curiosity trudging past even the most dramatic of temper tantrums, and probably a knee jerk reaction to having Pepper order him around on a holiday. When he sees the kid, Pepper gets to watch his expression change. Tony can play the cavalier billionaire all he wants, but his face—he’s going to need a better poker face. There’s probably a SHEILD class for it, she’ll make a note. Pepper steps around them. Walks over to the sidewalk and starts chatting with the mom. She keeps the woman distracted and gives the two Tonys some privacy.

Pepper doesn’t watch them, really, except maybe a little in the reflection of a neighbor’s window.

Eventually, the kid’s mom takes his hand, thanks them both, and leads him back toward the street with the promise of more candy. As they walk away, Pepper hears him say “Mom! _Mom_ that was _Tony Stark_!”

Pepper turns to Tony and he grabs her hand, squeezes it a little too hard, but in that well meaning way he always has. He kisses her cheek. Tony doesn’t have to say he wants to leave, and Pepper hopes that he uses the time to find Steve Rogers and talk about it. Tony’s smile is a little bit hopeful, and it’s so good to see him look like that again.

“Of course,” Pepper bites her lip to hide her own smile. “Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”

“That’ll be all, Miss Potts.”


End file.
